Email Updates

You are here

Home

26 SEPTEMBER 2014 VOLUME 15 ISSUE 39

Media Coverage

  • LGBT rights resolution passes United Nations Human Rights Council in lopsided vote

    An LGBT rights resolution was adopted on Friday by the United Nations Human Rights Council on a vote of 25–14, with seven abstentions. The vote may indicate support is growing for protecting LGBT rights under international human rights law.
     
    September 26, 2014
    BuzzFeed

  • UK panel under pressure to extend use of Merck's Gardasil to boys

    The debate around use of Merck's Gardasil in the United Kingdom is ratcheting up ahead of a meeting of the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) in October. An HPV-focused subgroup of JCVI met to discuss the topic this week, prompting public health experts to intensify their push for Gardasil to be given to boys....

     

    September 25, 2014
    HPV Vaccines
    FierceVaccines

  • HIV’s union with gender based violence

    Assigned by my boss, Khanya Mabuza; I descended Malagwane Hill to a meeting of Members of Parliament of both houses....When the master of ceremony turns it over to me, I take the stage and go straight to the priorities for the local response to HIV and AIDS....When Manzini North Member of Parliament, Jan Sithole, who took a public HIV test last week, commends me for a clear and precise presentation, I sigh with relief. What followed that presentation was a stream of questions, largely on gender based violence.
    September 25, 2014
    Swazi Observer

  • More than half of gay and bisexual men say a doctor has never suggested HIV testing

    Gay men and their doctors aren’t talking enough about sex, and that’s making it harder to control the spread of HIV. That’s the conclusion of a new survey of gay and bisexual men by the Kaiser Family Foundation released on Thursday. It found that 47 percent of the men have never discussed their sexual orientation with their doctors, and 56 percent have never been advised by a doctor to be tested for HIV.
     
    September 25, 2014
    New York Times

  • 'Honestly, it’s a revolution. It's so great taking control'

    In their own words, 12 candidates for the HIV prevention pill describe their decision to accept or reject a Truvada prescription.  When San Francisco city supervisor David Campos introduced a proposal to make Truvada available to everyone in the city, it prompted a new wave of interest in the drug, which has been approved by the US federal regulators for reducing the risk of HIV infection.
     

     

    September 24, 2014
    PrEP
    Guardian

  • Culture shock: Dropping out of HCV therapy

    What good is a $1,000-a-pill drug if it doesn't cure what ails you? That's the question raised by a recent analysis of patients taking sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) to treat hepatitis C (HCV)....Data from CVS/caremark...suggest that four times as many people drop out of sofosbuvir-based therapy in the real world as in the clinical trials....A couple of things jump out of the data. One is that treatment-experienced patients...had markedly lower dropout rates.
    September 24, 2014
    MedPage Today

  • Scaling impact: The next great challenge in global health and development innovation

    In the decade since Bill Gates kicked off a new movement in Grand Challenges innovation for global health and development, we have made a lot of progress and learned many lessons....We want to zero in on the next major barrier to success and how to overcome it. In our view, this barrier is optimizing the path to scale in a sustainable manner for thousands of innovations that have been supported at proof of concept.
     
    September 23, 2014
    Impatient Optimists

  • Denmark and Netherlands launch fund for sexual health groups

    A €15m fund to support small, grassroots organisations that are defending sexual and reproductive health and rights was launched in New York on Monday.
    September 23, 2014
    Guardian

  • Obama to meet with Ugandan defender of harsh anti-gay law at United Nations

    President Barack Obama will meet with Sam Kutesa, the controversial Ugandan diplomat serving as president of the United Nations General Assembly, on Wednesday in a move that is sure to frustrate rights activists who say Kutesa's support for virulently anti-gay legislation makes him unfit to lead the world's parliament....[but] some activists felt that this meeting ...represents an opportunity for dialogue on the rights of sexual minorities.
    September 23, 2014
    Foreign Policy

  • Religious leaders call for UN action on sexual & reproductive health

    On the eve of a major UN special session on population and development, a delegation of religious leaders released a statement calling for action on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights. The declaration, issued on the sidelines of the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, urged world leaders to uphold these rights and ensure they are reflected in the UN’s post-2015 evelopment agenda currently under discussion.
    September 19, 2014
    IPS

  • PrEP rally: As numbers rise, advocates want wider access

    The number of people using pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, to prevent HIV infection has risen steadily over the past year, according to data presented this week at a San Francisco community engagement forum. But PrEP advocates -- including 3 city supervisors -- say more needs to be done to overcome barriers to access....But cost is not the only barrier to PrEP, according to comments at the forum, PrEP rally, and City Hall hearing.
    September 19, 2014
    PrEP
    HIV & Hepatitis

  • Building momentum for sexual and reproductive health in the post-2015 dialogue

    Sexual and reproductive health, which includes access to family planning and HIV prevention and treatment, is increasingly being linked to progress across all areas of development. As the United Nations Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development comes closer to finalizing the post-2015 global development goals, a growing crescendo of voices is commenting on where we stand with regard to meeting the sexual and reproductive health needs of the world's girls, women and couples....
    September 18, 2014
    Huffington Post

  • CDC names new Global AIDS division director

    An infectious diseases physician and pediatrician with experience in both US and global HIV responses will lead the Division of Global HIV/AIDS at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She will assume the post opened when Dr. Deborah Birx left in early April to head the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Shannon Hader began her career at the CDC as a HIV/AIDS Prevention Division epidemic intelligence officer in 1999....
    September 17, 2014
    Science Speaks

  • Ebola responders look to lessons from HIV

    As the Ebola crisis deepens in West Africa, health leaders are taking cues from the international response to another deadly virus that has ravaged the continent — HIV. Chinua Akukwe, the lead African analyst with the National Academy of Public Administration, told lawmakers Wednesday that the US should look at its response to HIV/AIDS over the last decade when mapping out its plan to fight Ebola.
     
    September 17, 2014
    The Hill

  • An unfinished agenda: Sexual and reproductive rights in the 21st century

    World leaders will descend on United Nations Headquarters in New York on 22 September to commemorate 20 years since adoption of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)....After an extensive process of reviewing decades of country experience and progress in implementing the ICPD commitments, a bold vision has emerged for a sexual and reproductive rights agenda suited to 21st Century realities.
     
    September 17, 2014
    Huffington Post

  • HIV-positive man ordered to stop virus by Seattle court after he infected eight people in four years

    The man, known only as "AO" in court documents, is required to show up for counselling and to protect future sexual partners. Officials maintain they are not trying to criminalise sexual activity but to protect public health. The man could face fines or jail time if he does not comply....AO tested positive for HIV in 2008 and spread the virus to at least 8 people in 2010-14 despite receiving HIV counselling five times.
    September 11, 2014
    BBC News

Published Research

  • Chronic diseases threaten progress against HIV/AIDS: Scientists propose urgent NCD research agenda

    The global success in bringing antiretroviral treatment to HIV-infected patients in the developing world has brought a new set of health challenges. Many patients once condemned to death by AIDS now suffer from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) related to the infection itself, the drugs used to treat it, or the simple process of aging, an international group of researchers write in a special issue of JAIDS [http://journals.lww.com/jaids/toc/2014/09011]
    September 25, 2014
    Global Health Matters

  • Assessment of herd immunity and cross-protection after a human papillomavirus vaccination programme in Australia: a repeat cross-sectional study

    6 years after initiation of the Australian HPV vaccination programme, we have detected a substantial fall in vaccine-targeted HPV genotypes in vaccinated women; a lower prevalence of vaccine-targeted types in unvaccinated women, suggesting herd immunity; and a possible indication of cross-protection against HPV types related to the vaccine-targeted types in vaccinated women.
     
    September 25, 2014
    HPV Vaccines
    Lancet Infectious Diseases

  • London gay men: 2% of the population, a quarter of the sexually transmitted infections and half of HIV infections

    Men who have sex with men (MSM) living in London have particularly poor sexual health and this is worsening, Public Health England warn in a report published yesterday. The report calls on commissioners and providers of sexual health services to focus on the needs of this group: “Improving sexual health in MSM should be made the highest sexual health priority in London,” they recommend. The report is published against a backdrop of highly variable funding for sexual health and HIV prevention in London.
    September 24, 2014
    aidsmap

  • Increased knowledge of HPV vaccines does not predict higher rate of vaccination

    A year-long study of over 360 adolescents who were considered to be ideal candidates to receive the HPV vaccine showed that neither increased parental or adolescent knowledge about HPV or the vaccine resulted in higher rates of vaccination. That is, those with higher levels of knowledge were not more likely to obtain vaccination for themselves or their daughters.
    September 23, 2014
    HPV Vaccines
    Science Daily

  • Scientists seen as competent but not trusted by Americans

    If scientists want the public to trust their research suggestions, they may want to appear a bit "warmer," according to a new review published by Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The review, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), shows that while Americans view scientists as competent, they are not entirely trusted. This may be because they are not perceived to be friendly or warm.
    September 22, 2014
    Science Daily

  • Clinical trial design for HIV prevention research: determining standards of prevention

    This article seeks to advance ethical dialogue on choosing standards of prevention in clinical trials testing improved biomedical prevention methods for HIV....This article...moves beyond a simple descriptive approach to advance an organized method for considering what clinical trial designs will be ethically acceptable for HIV prevention trials, balancing the relevant criteria and providing justification for specific design decisions.
    September 17, 2014
    Bioethics

  • Formulation and delivery of anti-HIV rectal microbicides: advances and challenge

    This review provides a synopsis of the field of rectal microbicides, namely past and ongoing clinical studies, and details on formulation and drug delivery issues regarding the specific development of rectal microbicide products. Also, future work, as required for the advancement of the field, is discussed.
    September 16, 2014
    J Controlled

  • HIV transmission among men who have sex with men due to condom failure

    The proportion of HIV infections related to condom failure appears substantial and higher than previously thought.
    September 11, 2014
    PLoS One

  • HIV/AIDS and noncommunicable disease comorbidities: emerging research priorities

    The articles in this supplement—a project spearheaded by Fogarty in close partnership with the NIH Office of AIDS Research—articulate an agenda from which we can begin to address the spectrum of research, training, effective implementation, and evidence-based policy needed to confront this new challenge.
     
    September 1, 2014
    JAIDS

Announcements